XO, London

XO took us quite a while to get there and its all oriental, well asian oriental and modern. The layout inside is bright and clear, there is those cool sofa carriages that you can sit on but since there was only two of us, we sat in the middle of the restaurant. During dinner times it gets quite busy and luckily we had our table booked through toptable, with the 50% offer! Very good. I like offers.

For starters we opted for the salt and pepper tofu and chilli salt squid. The tofu was salty. Very very very salty however the chillisalt squid was less salty and flavours were just right! Cripsy ang light! It was also served in a newspaper cup. A CHINESE NEWSPAPER CUP. I sat there giggling and kept telling A that its chinese……which then resulted in both of us staring and reading outloud whatever they had written on there….waiter probably thought we were slightly crazy. But it was a chinese newspaper cup! See I’m amused. Still.

Pierre Herme: A taste in London

For Pierre Herme lovers, getting a taste of his macarons and other confectionery delicacies required hopping over the Channel, as beautifully demonstrated by our trip back in January to Paris.

Fear not! Back in March 2009, it was announced that Monsieur Herme was bringing his delights to London. 10 long months we’ve had to wait, but the opening date of his boutique beckons… Sources have discrepancies in the opening date, Foodtripper has it down as Friday 5th February,  whereas Seriouseats have it earlier on Tuesday 2nd February, 2010. My sources tell me the boutique is boarded up still, but it’s next to Lola’s Bakery on the food (basement) floor…

The flavours available at the Selfridges boutique will include his signature flavours: Rose, Chuao (dark chocolate & blackcurrant), Médélice (lemon & hazelnut praline), Coing (quince) & Rose, Mogador (milk chocolate & passion fruit), Infiniment Vanille, Imagine (matcha & sesame nougatine), Pistachio… and the list goes on.

Rose Macaron, White Truffle + Hazelnut Macaron

Song Que, London

I am waiting in Knightsbridge station patiently for A, who is coming from South Kensington. One train passes me. Two trains. Three trains. Four trains. I am not amused by this point. Five trains. Six trains. I think he arrives then! Im in a huff because I’m hungry, hungry and wanted to get to Song Que ASAP. We bicker a little but nevermind I’m going off track and it was a misunderstanding.

Off we trot to Old Street station and walk down old street turning into Kingsland Road. We pass the other viet restaurants along this street that I already love! There’s viet grill and Cay tre I gush to A, I am so excitied I’m practically skipping by this time! And then we walk further down till we can see the green corner shop……I happily point it out and cant wait to just get inside the restaurant!

First impressions, the decor looks a big tack and lets face it the interior isn’t what Conran would approve of either. But its homey and you feel transported back to Vietnam. Pace is fast and they have two massive lobsters stuck on top of the wall at the bar, very authentic.

The menu is extensive and I feel a bit dizzy from happiness, you know that feeling when you step into Selfridges oror the feeling when your looking at Chanels and Hermes oror the feeling when you queue up for hours outside gucci sale then they release you in, that kinda feeling. Anyway, off topic again, after thorough researching I know what we are going to order but I just like looking at the menu to see their selection…..and I cant wait to go back again!!

Feeling peckish, Hi Sushi to answer all stomachs.

That’s it. I want to go to

Hi sushi _izakaya.

Heart Pancakes

I like to shop. It’s a known fact and I tend to buy cute but totally irrelevant things to my life. And this is the second time using these in the two years I’ve bought them. They are cute heart shapers! So i decided to make pancakes one day since I had to keep a six year entertained for the whole night. Not just any six year old. But one that loses intrest within 2 minutes six year old. Hard.

I used Jamies American: (taken from website)

• 3 large eggs
• 115g/4oz plain flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 140ml/5fl oz milk
• a pinch of salt

“First separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use.

Heat a good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. At this point sprinkle your chosen flavouring (see below) on to the uncooked side before loosening with a spatula and flipping the pancake over. Continue frying until both sides are golden.”

Its so lovely and light! I prefer this version so much more than the crepes.

A Lille trip back in November

Im running slow on blog write-ups. So before January ends I will post up my most recent trip abroad, an impulse booking after reading the multiple enteries from many bloggers out there,  to Lille. So we set off on an early morning on Eurostar travelling away from rainy London to a dry/warm Lille. 1.5 hours only, we worked out that it was faster to travel to France than go Scotland. And probably cheaper too.So anyways, off we head off to Lille, details and money in hand.

OH, my whole plan of visitng what I intended to visit got totally ruined. I didn’t check the opening times (well i couldn’t find them) and some shops close sundays AND mondays……..laid back or what!On arriving to Lille, we are already having trouble, fun trouble, the metro machines don’t take notes! COINS ONLY. Shocking! But gave me excuse to buy a yummy, delicious and light crossaint (see england should have these patisseries JUST dotted round London stations) just to get change. Its hectic already.

We also have trouble map reading, in a tiny town like Lille, we take ages just to get to our destination only to find half the time its closed! T_T………So off we head to Meerts. Takes ages. We are lost. So we buy a doghnut to compensate for the years its taking to get to Meerts.
V: Lets ask someone.
C: Okie.
V: How do we ask? French english?
C: I don’t know.
V: Lets ask the next woman then.

It’s funny, half french half english half nodding. Fun times. Meerts IS WONDERFUL. We don’t even bother checking the price, we are too famish and in need of sugar rush. We get one. A HUGE sugar rush. We are probably stupid to order a dessert each. And it ends up with me having too much sugar resulting to half falling asleep on the table and C having a slight paparazzi moment with the Meerts guy. Did any of you see cute guys there??? I can’t remember the names of what we ordered. So here they are:

After the sugar rush, we head off to see Lille. I won’t post about my tourist things and concentrate on the food……..most likely ending in pictures because November seems a long way away! Now I bet all you guys think my fellow blogger D is so much better now dont you? =P

And I give up on what I remember what everything taste like. But the cheesy bauguette thing WAS ABSOLUTELY MELT IN MOUTH SERRIOSULY DELICIOUS.

My travel partner C says: Chicken needed next time fo’ sure. Juicy juicy chicken.

Everyone go to Le Cercle and order their chicken. THE WHOLE restaurant ordered it apart from us. Typical. And I don’t really remember much apart from the sugar rush, getting lost everytime, walking on the same street for the nth time and depressed over chicken. Life is such a bliss really. Which is why this blog is so short. Concise is the way forward people!

A Day in Paris, being in love with Pierre!

Or a macaron pilgrimage if you like. Since both of us had visited Paris before (albeit a long time ago), our plan was to visit Paris for the food since we only (essentially) had 10 hours: First train from St. Pancras at 7.27am and the last train back at 21.13pm, we packed in 5 food stops and 3 ‘tourist’ stops. Not bad if you also realize they’re was a lot of traveling on the French Metro and by foot!

Rose, Marron & The Vert Matcha, Truffe Blanche & Noisette, Pistache

In a temporal order, we first visited Gerard Mulot as this was beside Place des Vosges, then visiting the Louvre until halfway down the Champ-Elysee road, to take the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Followed by a massive food stop around the Renne and Saint-Sulpice stations, where Poilane, Pierre Herme and Sadaharu Aoki was situated. Giving in to our savoury tastebuds, we sat down for a meal at a brasserie however, before we continued on our way to Fauchon and Laduree, before taking a few snaps at the Arc de Triomphe.

I alone spent around 60 EUROS on food! Though this is what it was spent on (even I am impressed we bought so much food…)

+ Chaussons aux Pommes (Gerard Mulot, Poilane, Fauchon)
+ Quiche Aux Poireaux (Gerard Mulot, Brasserie)
+ Tarte Tutti Fruitti
+ Apple Tart
+ Pain au Chocolat
+ Brioche Loaf
+ Macarons (Pierre Herme: Rose, Marron & The Vert Matcha, Truffe Blance & Noisette, Pistache; Sadaharu Aoki: Matcha; Laduree: Fleur de Orangeur)
+ Bamboo A Matcha Tea Opéra
+ Eclair Sesame Noir
+ Palmier

We almost forgot to leave Paris (that’s another story for another time…). And with all that travelling in 10 hours, you can sort of feel how much pain I had in my feet by the end of the day. I’d say… parallel to the kind of pain in the feet after dancing the night away, but you’ve got some distance to go to the bus stop to get home (and yet it feels like eternity).

The Oxford and Cambridge Club, exclusively London.

I’ve been battling with myself on whether I should post something about my meal here. On one hand, I feel like a toff for having had a meal here, yet cheapass to feel the want of telling people about it. But the food was something to remember, thus my decision is… TO WRITE.

I’m not sure about you, but previously.. Pall Mall was but a box on the Monopoly board to me..  But as the taxi drove down this road on Pall Mall on a dark December evening, I could see into the tall grand windows of the buildings: there were 8 feet tall oil paintings of important men in Renaissance-style wigs in tails, parties of men in black tie and tails gathered around holding champagne flutes… I felt like I was living my own Jane Austen dream!

The Coffee Room, The Oxford and Cambridge Club

Amazing.

I just wanted to share with you this amazing recipe site!!! I absolutely have fallen in love with it after browsing for one night only. It sounds like I’m advertising for this blog. But really I am SO advertising for them, they are amazing!

Angie’s Recipes

Whoopie pies!

No really, these are actually called Whoppie pies by B.Hall sold in Harrods. Apprently they are fluffly and delicious with soft melting buttercream in between.

The best bit?

They rotate their flavours, so you can never get bored.